Do you really think Jenny from the Block is about to listen to a bunch of negative critics and industry peeps who tell her she needs to change? Nope!

Singer, actress, mother and business mogul Jennifer Lopez spoke to Cosmopolitan Magazine for Latinas about her early start and why she chose NOT to listen to a bunch of people who tried to dictate who she should be and what she should look like.

Here’s a thought, would she be where she was if she listened? Right from the start she was different from all the rest and didn’t ever try to copy others. And over a decade later it looks like her intuition was right!

When she began her entertainment career in the 90s as a backup dancer for the likes of Janet Jackson, then soon branching out into her own solo career, there was a lot of pressure to change her body, she reveals.

“When I first started on television [as a Fly Girl on “In Living Color”], people, and even my own manager at the time, would tell me I had to make all of these changes,” she said.

Thanks to her family who enabled her to love who she was, the way she was, there was no way this Latina star was about to conform.

“Early on, my family really made me love who I was and what I looked like,” she recalled. “My body was nothing out of the ordinary in my neighborhood.”

“You have to stand up and say, ‘There’s nothing wrong with me or my shape or who I am; you’re the one with the problem!’” she said, “And when you can really believe that, all of a sudden other people start believing too.”

Lopez is no stranger to critics in her line of work. The press always seem to make it their business to comment on everything form her outfits, her curvy body, her marriages and divorces, and even to her singing ability.

“The biggest insecurity I had was my singing. Even though I had sold 70 million records, there was this feeling like, I’m not good at this. And while I was married to Marc, he helped me get over it. He kept telling me, ‘You’re the only one holding yourself back from reaching your full potential as a singer. You have to let go’…Then I realized, wait a minute, this is not a fluke. I’m not a mistake – I work my ass off. And I know what I’m doing.”

That’s not to say she doesn’t admit her mistakes. After all they seem to be on full display for the world to see. But it takes a particular brand of woman, a strong one, to be able to face her foibles and move on with confidence.

She talks about being vulnerable as an important part of being a role model, which she takes seriously.”I know that being seen as a role model means taking responsibility for all my actions. I am human, and of course, sometimes I make mistakes. But I promise that when I fall, I get back up. When I am wrong, I will learn the lesson and move on to face other challenges. For me, that’s what creating your own life is. Doing your best work while being your best self.”

Whether you agree on her taste in men, her style of music, the movie roles she plays, or the perfumes she releases, that’s not important. What matters is her determination to aim for integrity in everything she does. She doesn’t claim to be the best singer but she works hard. Everyone makes mistakes but we can either learn or continue to pity ourselves and stay stuck in bad habits.

Being brave enough to share these things to inspire her fans makes J-Lo an awesome woman and a strong role model. Don’t give in to ANY pressure to change yourself to please someone else’s standards. That gets you nowhere. Being yourself is the key to unlock your destiny. Exhibit A: Miss Jennifer Lopez!